The New Templar's First Outing: or How High Marshal Helbrecht Outsources

To begin, this post will be more of a redux on today's tactics and units, rather than a full set of battle reports.  For some reason, I failed to take a single photo all day.  It's probably for the best since I was unable to have an entirely painted force (I hate bringing unpainted models to the table).  Between work and school, getting both Helbrecht and the Centurions finished was not possible.  I've nearly finished Helbrecht and I'll hopefully have him ready to show off next week with he Centurions hard on his heels.

The Scenario and Organized Play
For today's scenario, the store manager picked the game where a single objective is placed in the center of the board and the defender (it's the Space Marines in the mission book) deploys within 12 inches of the objective. The Attacker deployed outside of 18 inches.  The caveat was that the attacker had to place their warlord and heavy support into reserves, and the defender could only put deep striking units into reserve.  Based on the number of players, it was decided we would each play two rounds and see where the standings were at that point.

How the Templar preformed:

HQ
Helbrecht unfortunately didn't do much of anything for me.  The first game saw him and the honor guard face down a demon prince.  Between them and another squad, they were able to keep the demon prince tar pitted for the entire game, leaving all my other units to do their jobs.  Crusade of wrath seems pretty awesome, but I haven't seen the upside yet.  The first game saw me setting up my troops across the board to land one ultimate turn of assault.  Each unit was about 4 to 5 inches away from the enemy units and I failed all but one charge.  Fleet means nothing if you roll bad on everything.  The second game I called the crusade just to feel like I was using it.  Nothing would have changed the result.

Troops
The options available to our Crusader Squads aren't fully reflected in a lot of the discussions I've both seen and been a part of.  Most of our talks seem to have centered around point comparisons from before.  With such an extreme update, the options available to us are huge.  The Plasma Cannon squad did it's duty dealing out pain until either the plasma cannon was sniped or a unit was sent way out of the way to deal with them.  The two rhino squads saw a lot more attention than I thought they would.  In both games, my opponents went after a rhino immediately and with great malice.  Since I had brought them with the intention of tar pitting, this worked to my advantage.  This really showed itself in keeping the Demon Prince away from the main battle.  The Land Raider Crusader squad blacked more than one eye today. In my first game, I was the attacker and, even though their Land Raider became immobilized right out of the gate, this unit hacked their way into the center destroying one unit entirely and capturing the objective for the win.  The second game, with me as the defender, they surged forward taking the fight to the Blood Angels.

Fast Attack
Against all odds, my Stormtalon didn't suffer a single loss to its hull points.  It was largely ignored, which allowed me to fly around the board picking my targets.  While it wasn't a bad showing, the Stormtalon was overshadowed by many other units.

Heavy Support
The Centurions came to party today.  Right away, they finished off one unit and severely crippled another.  And in the second game, focusing their fire meant a squad of Blood Angels were wiped to a man.  A large part of their success came to dividing up their gear.  The grav-cannon is great, but very situational.  Having the lascannons helped to offer some extra punch, especially when you give the Sergeant the grav-cannon with an omniscope.  Being able to throw five shots at a squad of 2+ armor models with AP2 and still fire the Lascannons at a vehicle is nothing short of Emperor like. I brought missile launchers as well, expecting some mass troop infantry lists, but I didn't face any.  Instead, I settled for firing krak missiles alongside the other shots.  As expected, cover is a Centurion's best friend.  I worked hard to block line of sight from things I wasn't targeting, and the things I did target wasn't able to handle the Centurions' attentions.  I think picking our targets is important in this and if we play smart this unit will become a significant part of our list building.  They did run afoul of a bunch of AP2 close combat attacks in the first game and no amount of planning could have avoided that.  When you're charged from the warp, there's little you can do, overwatch or no overwatch.

I thought the list served me well.  At the end of two games, I finished undefeated and won the event.  This was a first for me, and even on my better days had only ever finished about mid-pack.  I won the new Space Marine Captain model and plan to convert him into a Sword Brethren (I have more Marshals than I could hope to field).  Sadly, my last opponent had to leave early for a family emergency and I hope that the emergency didn't end up being too severe.

Some changes I'd like to experiment with would be switching out the combi-meltas for a couple combi-gravs.  While the melta was nice, I think taking a Melta gun in the squad will do the same thing with more consistency, while the combi-grav will open up a whole new host of options.  In theory, I'd then have the ability to soften up some heavy armored units before meeting them in close combat.  I'm also still experimenting with different types of power weapons.  Hiding a power axe in the unit still seems like the best option, but I'm still giving it some thought.  I'd also like to pick up some options in scouts.  I've really been thinking about how a small squad with sniper rifles could serve me well in disrupting the plans of my opponent and opening up room for my assault oriented troops.  I've also thought about trying out a Land Speeder storm for late game objective grabs and assaulting weak units like pathfinders.  And boosting the numbers of my squad with Neophytes is a time honored tradition for Templar players.  One I haven't utilized to a degree that I'd like to in the future.

I don't think I've ever had a bad time playing at the local store's events and today was no exception.  It was exciting to see a couple new faces and meet a couple people who did not play, but are getting started in the hobby.  These events have been running consistently since the start of the year and the 40k community in the store has seemed to really flourish with interesting and fun players (at least to my perspective, perhaps they've always been around and we hadn't had the opportunity to interact).

What have you experienced with the new codex?  Leave a comment below and thanks for reading!!!

My first Venture Out with the New Codex

It took me a week, but I'm finally getting to my first game of the new codex.  My local store's monthly game pulled out an odd game type to add some variety, so if my list seems lopsided, it was with the game style in mind.

HQ

            High Marshal Helbrecht 180pts

                        3 Honor Guard, Drop Pod w/ Deathwind Launcher 135pts

Troops

Crusader Squad 85pts

5 Initiates, Plasma Cannon

Crusader Squad 174pts

5 Initiates, Power Weapon, Bolt Pistols and Close Combat Weapons, Rhino w/ Dozer Blades,

                        1 Sword Brother, Power Weapon, combi-melta

            Crusader Squad 174pts

5 Initiates, Power Weapon, Bolt Pistols and Close Combat Weapons, Rhino w/ Dozer Blades,

                        1 Sword Brother, Power Weapon, combi-melta

           

Crusader Squad 455pts

9 Initiates, Power Weapon, Bolt Pistols and Close Combat Weapon, Land Raider Crusader w/ Multi-melta

                        1 Sword Brother, Power Weapon, Combi-melta

Fast Attack

            Stormtalon Gunship 140pts

                        Twin-linked Assault Cannon, Twin-linked Lascannon

Heavy Support

Centurion Devastator Squad 290pts

2 Twin-linked Lascannon, 1 Grav-cannon and grav-amp, Omniscope,  3 Missile Launchers

HQ

With Helbrecht finally being an HQ worth taking, I leapt at an opportunity to run him.  With the special rules for the event, there is a chance that my warlord may have to go into reserve at the begging of the game.  Without Eternal Warrior, he risks getting popped early by walking onto the board, so I chose to give him a minimum honor guard to both boost him and offer some survivability.

Troops

The smallest Crusader Squad will be tasked with holding the center objective.  The plasma cannon is aimed at giving the squad some survivability should a 2+ armor squad escape my tarpitting units.

The two squads in rhinos will be acting as both tarpits and character hunting units.  And if they have an opportunity, they'll use the combi-melta to either wreck vehicles or insta-kill characters.  Thanks to Marshal Laeroth for the insight.  For 10 points, it seems like an auto include.

The final Crusader Squad will have two tasks. If I'm the defender, they'll be hunting shooty units to force them into close combat range.  If I end up as the attacker, they'll be tasked with opening a hole to the objective.

Fast Attack

I enjoy taking Stormtalons and they rarely disappoint.  My biggest concern is the amount of Aegis Defense Lines I often see at these events.  I may have to drop pod Helbrecht in a place to deal with any quad guns.  What I like most about the Stormtalon is that it forces my opponent to find a solution for it. It packs enough punch to hurt anything on the board.

Heavy Support

It's strange for me to run something in this slot as I rarely ran tanks in the last codex.  While the Centurions seem great I worry about how expensive it is to run them.  With no invulnerable save, they'll be at risk to any Tau players I face.  With that in mind, I didn't want to spam grav cannons until I knew how they preformed on the table.

Leave a comment below and thanks for reading !

Centurions: An Introduction to the Models

To sum it up, I am digging the new release.  As soon as the new models went live on the GW website, I dashed to the game store to pick up my new codex.  I debated and debated all week on what models to purchase first, before deciding to pick up the new Centurions.  For as much hate as they received on the internet, the models are good looking in person with a ton of detail.  They are a converter's dream and my mind is running away with future projects.  The game store has its monthly event this weekend and I'm really hoping to have both Helbrecht and the Centurions ready.  But with classes starting up again, it'll be a challenge.  So without any more rambling from me... ON TO THE MODELS!!!

When I got home, I popped open the box and found some rather full sprues.  I'm impressed about how much stuff they squeezed onto the sprue and my wife had to put up with me repeatedly showing her all that the sprues held.

Since I planned on doing some reposing on these guys, I opted to remove the bits one sprue at a time.   As I discovered, this is the best way to do this.  Each sprue more or less holds all the bits for one Centurion (a couple grav cannon bits excepting) and this helps with how many pieces each model has to put together.   Many parts, especially the legs, have a specific way they come together and mixing them can have less than ideal results.  I cannot stress how many pieces are in this kit.  At the time of this posting, I have one Centurion built, one sitting in a bath, and the final still on the sprue.

The biggest part of this repose was looking at where the cuts needed to be.  I did some dry fitting and looked ahead several steps to see what accommodations I needed to make with the various armor bits, and discovered most of the armor would cover any cuts I needed to make.  While this didn't mean I could be absolutely careless, it did free me up to trim as I needed without being concerned about a ton of cleanup.  One of the best parts of the legs is the ball joint connecting the feet to the leg.  By just trimming out the slight bit inside the cup, I was able to adjust the foot to whatever position I wanted.  I liked it when GW did this for the Riptide and I love it on this model as well.

One of the challenging aspects about this repose was the fact that there are so many pieces that attach to the legs.  The kit is designed around the static poses seen on the box and when changes, even as small as the one in the photo, are made the adaptions needed for each piece increases with each layer.  Thankfully, some hot water and a little bit of patience was all that was required to get everything to come together in the right places.  If you do some reposing as well, make sure you have a game plan for the back armor piece.  It is made to attach in a very specific way and I could have saved myself some extra effort had I planned out my process.  It didn't hurt the overall look, but it took more time than I would have preferred to get it to attach and look correct.

While these photos look simple, I opted to take these pics for the sheer ridiculous amount of time I spent trying to get good contact between the torso and the legs.  Because of poor (read "no") planning on how I was going to run the readjusted piping, I placed it exactly in the way to get a good solid connection.  A little bit of work fixed this and tipped me off to how I should go about this on the next two.  I repeat, (mostly for myself) plan out far in advance on this kit when reposing.

The front armor plates required more adjustment in the repose domino effect.  This was also pretty simple to do.  I was surprised by how much this plate section added to the model.  Before, the model felt like an oversized marine, but afterward it felt more like the mech suit it is.  Perhaps it's all in my head.  

Going in, I decided I was going to magnetize all of the weapon options.  At 80 dollars a kit, I could by no means own enough kits to have the different models to play WYSIWYG.  I pondered and pondered on how I was going to magnetize the launchers on the torso.  With some greenstuff to beef up the insides of the torso, it looked liek it would be doable, but then I thought about how much of a pain keeping track of a bunch of launcher weapons would be.  And opted out for whichever option my wife said looked best.  As usual, my wife's taste was excellent and I saved myself a ton of effort on the launchers.  

While I didn't magnetize the launcher options, I do have the gun and drill options magnetized.  The biggest concern I had was that the reposing of the arms would affect the way the hosing would attach.  I really like the look of the hose and it really completes the look of a powered suit.  Surprisingly, with almost no work, the hose attacked easily.  And looks good with all of the weapon options.  The couple pics I snapped earlier did not show my magnetizing very well, so I'll be doing a post in the near future explaining my process with better pics.

The posing of the first Centurion was centered around including a Traitor Guardsman I made from things in my bits box.  Part of the the model is metal and I spent some time beforehand bending and shaping the legs and torso to look like he was being knocked to the ground.  This changed when I realized some of the gun options (the lascannon)  would run into the model.  I set the guardsman down on the base to position some things and discovered the pose worked perfectly to make the choas traitor look like he is cowering before the Centurion.  The pic was taken hurriedly, and future progress pics will better show this model.  I'm pleased with the dynamic look the pair makes together.  

I imagine that we'll see more of these on the table even with all the grumbling on the internet and in the game shops.  With a little creativity, the models look good and I imagine they'll look good on the table. What things are you working on from the new release?  What else would you like to see me work on?  Leave a comment below and thanks for reading!!!

Making Up for Lost Time

It's been a while since my last post.  When starting this blog, it was my goal to have at least two posts a week.  But, a burst of events at work and an injury, with surprise trip to the ER, slowed down my hobbying.  So to get the ball rolling once again, I'll cover what little I was able to do.  

Helbrecht: The New Old Hotness

It pains me to admit, but the only Black Templar characters I've ever purchased until now was the Emperor's Champion.  With the Armory System in place it just didn't make sense to run a character, when I could run such great generic Marshals and  Chaplains.  And it's no secret that I love my Chaplains. But with the coming changes, it appears that Templar characters are going to be character killers.  From top to bottom I am seeing some exciting combos in my mind (many of which will probably be changed when I get the codex in hand) and with these changes comes the need for our published characters.  Anticipating both a price increase and the knowledge that there are quite a few models I'm going to want from the generic marines range, I hurried over to the game store and picked up Helbrecht.  

By all early appearances, Helbrecht is going to be a stud.  His Waagh, erm Crusade of Wrath, ability will make him a viable option.  However, like all assault in this edition, timing will be key to make use of this.  I have a couple ideas on how to make the most of Crusade of Wrath, but we'll see what it looks like on the ground this weekend.  With the boost in WS and the ability to take an Honor Guard, this unit will be hunting the battlefield for enemy Warlords.  Of course I'm taking an especially optimistic view, as usual, but the potential is there.  

Painting the High Marshal

While Helbrecht has been a recent addition, I've been trying to get him painted up in time for the new release.  Unfortunately, his time at my house has been rough.  As a finecast model a certain amount of work was required.  And as many of you know, just because there are few visible bubbles, this doesn't mean that there are no bubbles to be found.  And as pieces burst from the model during the cleaning process, a side pile of bits grew.  After a couple nights sitting in the living room with some green stuff and a hobby knife watching Netflix with my wife, I had a completed model.  I had considered doing a complete repose of the model.  But looking at how everything came together, I opted for a simple head swap.  Pleased with how it looked I primed and placed the model on the kitchen counter.  A poor decision from the start.  I'm not entirely sure what amount of abuse happened after that (some xenos treachery I'm sure), but every bit that didn't have a bubble underneath was damaged or broken off.  

With the model repaired, I've begun painting and I will continue to post updates as it comes along.  I'm planning on doing some free hand on the cape (something I've really enjoyed doing lately), but I haven't fully decided what I want to do.  Suggestions are welcome.

Cashing in on Double Points Month

One of the awesome benefits of my local game store is their points program.  And August was double points month!  I play a multitude of games, and I've been working to increase my points in anticipation of the new codex.  Normally, I wouldn't post much about something like this, but my last trip to the store made me wonder if something exciting is coming.  I went in on Saturday to preorder my codex and while there I decided to pick up either some Sword Brethern or a Templar upgrade box.  Since I'm really the only Templar player in the area (one other player owns them  but rarely breaks them out) there's never a shortage of Templar models on the shelf.  As I hunted around I couldn't find a single Templar model.  While this has little to do with tactics or hobbying, it points towards something I hoped would emerge from being rolled into the main codex: introduction of new Templar players.  The only hope Templar have of breaking back out onto their own in the future is an influx of new Templar players.  I'll be on the lookout for new Templar players and hopefully we can recruit and cultivate a wealth of new crusaders.

Things to Come:

In the near future, I will be releasing a few different posts.  First, I have an amusing battle report in the works.  Initially, I wanted to do a week of Templar battles to send out the old codex in style, but the injury saw fit to end that.  So I put a week's worth of energy into one battle.  Second, I've got a project in the works, that'll seek to help new Templar players see how I do a step by step painting of my Templar.  The store is hosting a contest for painting basic marines and I figured I might as well take a lot of pics and make a post.  Lastly, with a few different discussions on terrain cropping up on BOLS and elsewhere, I've been thinking about doing a series of posts on terrain and tables.  There will be more on this coming soon.  

What would you like to see in the way of board discussion?  Post a comment below and thanks for reading!